Rural Teachers Are Surveyed on Certification Standards

Rural teachers want high certification standards, but they also want
flexibility in applying them, according to a new survey.

The National Rural Development Institute, which paid for the study
in part with money from the U.S. Education Department, surveyed a
randomly selected sample of rural teachers, state education-department
officials, and teacher-educators last fall. About 250 responses had
been received by February.

Because teachers in rural areas often must be licensed to teach
several subjects, "certification is often the toughest problem facing
rural teachers and the school districts trying to hire them,'' said
Doris Helge, director of the institute.

Most of the educators surveyed said that, despite the need for
multiple certification, they did not want rural teachers to have
less-stringent standards than non-rural teachers.

About 57 percent said a national certification program for rural
teachers should be established, and 76 percent agreed that common state
standards for certification should be formulated, regardless of whether
a national program is developed.

However, nearly 67 percent said they believed there should be
flexibility in applying standards, including the waiver of some
requirements.

A summary of the National Rural Teacher Certification Study may be
obtained from the National Rural Development Institute, Western
Washington University, Miller Hall 359, Bellingham, Wash.
98225.--K.G.

Web Only

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.